Pesquisas em ensino de botânica e sua (des)valorização no espaço acadêmico : um estudo de teses e dissertações defendidas no Brasil - 2002 a 2022

Abstract

Botany is one of the areas belonging to Biology, which aims to understand plants, such organisms, which have significant attributions that permeate both ecological and social aspects. The process related to the Teaching of Botany is extremely important, especially in a global scenario where there is a strong tendency towards the destruction of floristic biodiversity, and the Teaching of Botany can help to reduce such problems, enabling the formation of a critical subject. However, the literature often points out that the Teaching of Botany suffers from student apathy, given that it is generally carried out in a decontextualized way and through the systematic presentation of several scientific terms, which trigger learning difficulties. There is a phenomenon known as botanical imperception, which portrays the predilection of students for other areas of biology, when contrasted with Botany, this phenomenon also points out that plants often go unnoticed in the environments, or as inferior to animals. In view of the points raised, the present study aimed to analyze the production of Brazilian theses and dissertations related to Botany Teaching in Brazil from 2002 to 2022. To achieve the proposed objective, a review study was chosen, which allows us to map the most favored and most neglected aspects in publications related to a given area of knowledge, making it possible to trace new paths that can guide further research. Therefore, two descriptors were adopted “Botany Teaching” and “Botany Teaching in the Amazon”, in the database of the Brazilian Digital Data Library (BDTD). Adopting the inclusion and exclusion criteria proposed for this study, a total of 98 researches were found, including theses and dissertations. The North region had the worst quantity, with only 8 productions, on the other hand, the Southeast region presented 39 academic products. The only regions that have theses related to Botany Teaching are the Southeast and the South, the others, only dissertations. Regarding Postgraduate Programs (PPGs), the contribution of Professional Masters is significant, especially ProfBio, in the interest in mitigating the impacts of Botanical Negligence. In addition, it was noted that many of the related studies end up being developed with high school students, with studies with Early Childhood Education and other modalities, such as Youth and Adult Education (EJA) being overlooked. The North, Northeast and Central-West regions showed, through their research, an interest in developing methodological strategies to facilitate teaching and learning, while the Southeast and South stood out for seeking to understand the difficulties in teacher training in relation to Botany. In addition, in all regions, a favoritism was noted, in relation to other taxa. It is concluded that in order to overcome the challenges of botanical neglect, it is important to expand research related to the teacher training process and the difficulties faced by active teachers, allowing the achievement of Biological Literacy among individuals.